Meeting the first snow of the season

Briefly. Not a lot. But just enough to get that fresh smell of the fresh snow.

Have you ever noticed that smell of snow and frost, that smell that lingers in your nostrils, a little bit sweet and hell of a lot dry? It’s more intense when the white powder just fell for the first time and especially when you feel that sub-zero temperature for the first time after some months.

Moving to the mountains

Luck stroke and I had to go to Brașov (a city in the mountains) just the day after this first snow fell. It was a clear day just after the snowfall and the good news landscapes started as soon as I left Ploiești. Our mountains in my area fall down steeply on the plains that start right near the city I live in. There’s practically a very small hill area beyonf them and this fact combined with the clear sky that sometimes strikes the area, creates a “tunnel” through which eyes can spot the white cliffs of the freshly snowed upon mountains. It’s a great visual show that hardly can be snapped in a picture, no matter what lenses you use.

Yeah, I’m driving and taking pictures.

Not with the phone man, but with the camera. I live dangerously and I play in the big league. Don’t judge me, I snap shots “from the waist” not putting the visor on the eye so I’m still paying enough attention to the road so I won’t even kill a fly during this.

Closing in to Sinaia, our Royal mountain resort – inherited from our former kings – one can check closer the details of our Bucegi mountains. In my personal opinion, these mountains are some of the most beautiful we have in the Carpathian chain that moves all across our country and being close to the capital (120-130km) are also the best developed in terms of tourism. This is where a lot of our best resorts and accommodation are concentrated. Moreover, its closeness to Brașov, another major city of the country, make them more appealing and also more developed from these points of view. That’s why I and my colleagues choose the resort of Poiana Brașov in the majority of the cases when we need to meet. One is from Bucharest, one from Ploiești and the other is from “Transilvania”, the land across the mountains. This is a middle meeting point which is convenient for all of us and also brings in to the table more than a place to gather and talk job things.

It’s a place where we can have a ski session during the winter, some nice strolls during the summer and overall a place where fresh air is in abundance. We take advantage of it as often as possible.

Poiana Brașov, the mountain resort that the communists loved

Though they are not the artisans of this resort, the communists were really keen about it. They improved it, constructed the first cable transport installations for skiers, some luxury hotels that even today are being used as 4 or 5 stars and usually traditional restaurants. After the fall of communism, the private sector developed the area close to its actual capacity without increasing the infrastructure as well so today we have a great resort that during the season is sometimes inaccessible because of the number of cars and people trying to reach the top where the cable transports are.

It’s not perfect, that sure, but if you get to Poiana Brașov during the extra season and you have the luck to find some snow there, the feeling will be exquisite.

There are two ways to get into Poiana Brașov: through the city or through the back of the mountain.

I took the second option as it gets you there without encountering any traffic light and without the hassle to cross the city. It’s a smaller road, a secondary piece of shit that during the winter will either get full of snow and will not be cleaned up until the spring or will be too cramped up as a lot of the people who know about it will take it in order to bypass the craziness that is happening on the main one.

As the snow fell only on the peaks of the mountain, during this time of year the road was in pretty much good condition. I don’t know what got into our authorities but they managed to patch up also the holes in the asphalt and mark it down just enough so that you don’t get lost during the night and, God forbid, you fall on the side of the road, in some steep ravine.

It’s awful quiet these days over there. Even though there was this powder that fell over the night, the slopes are of course, impracticable and the few tourists that roam the area are looking like zombies that have no idea where to go or what to do.

If quietness is what you are looking for then you will not be one of them as you’ve most probably come with that thought in mind. I came mostly in order to meet the snow of this season, to tell her to be good, to come together with all her family (close and distant relatives). I’ve had enough of the warmth of this longer than usual summer/autumn and I could use some abundance snow and the frost that comes with it in order to let my snowboard carve it properly on the slopes of our mountains.